MIRAMAR

El Salvador En Los Años 40 Documental Subtitulado Español.

While traveling through San Salvador last Spring, my class got to visit and talk with a phenomenal photojournalist, Mauro Arias, who is working for El Faro, the most widely distributed left-leaning news publication in the country. In talking with him, I really admired his drive to photograph - it was not a want, but a need - to report and accurately describe the often unsavory and overlooked mistakes in the country’s politics and execution of policies.  He has recently published a story, ¿Cuánto cuesta su taza de café? (How Much Is Your Cup of Coffee?), talking about the coffee boom in El Salvador and it’s effects on the job market, human labor and social justice in the country. A typical salary for a permanent/year-round employee here is $140 every other week. That is $70 a week, for all of one’s living expenses, often supporting several family members as well. The cost of picking raw cherries for processing and exporting is roughly 155 times less than what is paid for the same bean, roasted and brewed, at a typical specialty cafe. This is almost exactly what I had initially wanted to do my thesis on, but Mauro’s images are incredible. It’s an important story for all of those involved in the coffee chain to consider.  “The coffee has directed the course of personal histories and of a country to fair weather, on the one hand, and to the injustice, on the other. “

Veronica Vides, La Barrida (Aguacayo, El Salvador), 2009

El Salvador landscape appreciation post. I miss it so much.  

Rebekah Purcell

Rebekah Purcell

Rebekah Purcell

Rebekah Purcell

Okay so posting gratuitous pictures of your face is kind of obnoxious and weird and all, but one of the kids took this during one of the photo workshops in Sensuntepeque, and I’m pretty sure this is documentation of how I look when I’m actually, 100% completely happy, y’all.  This is an honest photograph. 

Rebekah Purcell